The Song That Saved Me
by XzXxLIZXzXx
Summary: High School AU. Ruby is a musician struggling with her depression after the loss of her parents. Sapphire just moved to Beach City. She keeps to herself because she has social anxiety. She loves to sing, and decides to ask the music teacher about chorus class after school. The meet in the band room, a confrontation occurs, I can't write short summaries. actual summary is in preface
1. Prologue

**A/N:** **Hey guys! For those of you who have never read anything from me before, welcome! For this chapter, I'm not going to explain what you're about to read, because it's only a prologue, and while it gives useful information, it is not required to understand TSTSM and its plot (though it may be referenced from time to time in the actual fanfic.) I will say that it's a lot more intricate than I originally intended for it to be, and that it didn't end up going the direction I had planned on at first, which isn't a bad thing, I think. One point of clarification though: the 'human race' in this story was much more advanced than our human race was almost 9,000 years ago lol. Think about it like this, they were at the point we are at now, back then. Anyways, I'm sure a lot of you are wondering where I've been, and fret not, for your question will be answered! Just not here. That particular** ** _gem (_** **get it? Gem?) will be located in the author's note for chapter one. If any of you who reading this now happen to follow my other story, 'Well, This is Awkward' I address some things regarding that fanfic and its status in the next chapter's A/N. Well, now that that's out of the way, I hope you enjoy this prologue, it in no way sets the scene for the rest of the fanfic, but I really wanted to write my own version of the gem war, and just so happened to tie it into my storyline, if only slightly. Anyways, let me know what you think of it, even if you hate it!**

 **~Liz~**

 **Prologue: The Gem War**

 **Earth: 8,567 years ago**

This planet was only meant to be a temporary colony. It would sustain gem production for a few millennia, become unstable, and implode; and the Diamond Authority was perfectly fine with that. However, after the first few centuries of production, Earth-made gems started becoming attached to the planet they now called home. A small rebellion formed, and became a substantial force to be reckoned with. Eventually, they formed colonies of their own all over earth, learning the ways of the native species, intermingling with them.

They started attacking Homeworld gems, and shutting down the Kindergartens. Soon an all-out war was in full swing. Each side desperately trying to come up with a way to end the war. A group of gem scientists, who turned on Homeworld for their intolerant ways, fled to Earth, to help. The gem scientists, now allied with the rebellion, had long since solved the dilemma of gem production on Earth. You see, each gem, while being comprised of different minerals and inorganic material, has a core.

Inside that core is where the gems consciousness lies, along with chromosomal-like material. While it was still inorganic, it functioned as a sort of 'hard drive' inside of the gem, helping it function as it normally should. These scientists discovered, by breaking down the gems outer shell, that they could alter, delete, and add material to the core, essentially 'reprogramming' the gem to be able to do different functions once the core was re-incubated and the resulting gem formed a physical body.

They could even add organic components to an extent. Through this process they had discovered a way to create a brand-new species of gem. All the old traits were there, but a few… organic additions were made. The new gems had been modeled after the indigenous species of this planet, humans. The scientists combined the best of both species, to create a self-sufficient hybrid race of gems. All they needed was a place fertile enough to properly incubate their new creation, for while they could create cores they had no way of properly forming a gem around it while having it remain functional.

That's where Earth's Kindergartens came into play. They created a batch of 150 gem cores, and inserted then into the Earth with an abandoned injector; then set off to wait while their creations incubated. A century passed, the war seemingly at a stalemate for the majority of it, and finally the new gems were fully developed. The new gem hybrids had all the qualities of a traditional gem; they could summon a weapon, they demonstrated the proper traits for their programmed gem class, they could regenerate and did not age, but there was a difference, or rather, a few differences.

Tests had been run over the course of the next 200 years, and the differences were marked in their records, for the scientists hoped to eventually show this to the Diamonds and end this war for good. The differences were as follows: for starters, once the new gems were incubated in an abandoned Kindergarten, they did not come out fully grown. They came out small, and resembled human infants, that seemed to age and develop like a human child, even requiring sustenance and sleep.

They were still only projections of light, however, and could not be physically killed, unless shattered. If they retreated into their gem, they reformed normally, but could not seem to force themselves to age faster. They could summon a weapon and fuse, but both required training and practice, which was baffling but not detrimental to the study. Once they reached maturity, their biological needs seemed to vanish. They were, for all intents and purposes, regular gems from that point on, never aging past the appearance of a young adult.

There was one trait, however, that needed a sort of, incubation period of sorts. You see, these new gems were capable of something previously unheard of among gem-kind. The gem scientists on the side of the rebellion were dead set on protecting Earth, yet realized the need for new gems. So, they programmed gems to develop certain, physical aspects they typically wouldn't have. Gems that were made on Earth from the new spliced programming, were no longer sexless.

Each gem possessed both male and female chromosomes, and as such were able to manifest desired physical aspects of a preferred gender for the purpose of reproduction. For the first time, gems were able to biologically reproduce, and the resulting geodes, after developing inside their parent gem, hatched like eggs rather than sucking the nutrients from the Earth. The carrier of the geodes required sustenance once more, and sleep as well.

The geodes took the nutrients from the parent, and after a short incubation period, were birthed and left to finish hatching. The process took 13 months in total, and there were usually 5 to 8 geodes per incubation period. However, there was a catch to this process. Once a gem was mature, they only were fertile every 20 years. They studied the new gems intensely, for almost another century. They determined that, although reproduction was slow, it was undeniably a safe, secure, and sustainable alternative to Kindergartens.

The only other problem was, you had no control over what gem types were bred. Each geode produced had the possibility of becoming a mixed gem of parent A and parent B, the same gem as parent A, or the same gem as parent B. it was also discovered that only way to reproduce, was to pair a gem with female characteristics with a gem possessing male characteristics, which wasn't an issue considering they could manifest either at any given time.

Despite these minor setbacks, the scientists showcased their discoveries made over the last four centuries to the Diamond Authority, in an effort to stop the war, but, being unsatisfied with the slow and unpredictable process, the Diamonds shot it down without a thought. In an effort to end the war through less peaceful means, Homeworld scientists had created a toxin that interfered with a gems' core consciousness. They launched a full-scale attack, releasing the toxin widespread on Earth, not sparing their own.

Gems started turning into uncontrollable beasts, and very few were immune to the toxin. The damaged gems, now referred to as 'corrupted' gems, targeted anything they could; each other, gems both for and against homeworld, even humans. There was one saving grace among all this chaos, however. All the gems that had been created on Earth, the hybrids, were immune to the toxin completely. They formed an army of their own together, which was fairly large considering they had been breeding for the past 282 years, and took out the beasts, along with whatever Homeworld soldiers survived.

Over the next millennium, the new gems had driven Homeworld away, and destroyed the corrupted gems. Earth had been saved, and the war had ended once the toxin had been released, so the gems on Earth were left to their own devices, able to flourish and repopulate the planet they fought so hard for. The humans, however, had not been as lucky. The toxin, while not initially harmful to them, had radioactive effects, and eventually humans became unable to reproduce, ironically enough.

In retaliation for Homeworld's attack, and the subsequent elimination of the native species, as well as their fallen gems, the gems left on Earth attempted to recreate an even more potent version of the toxin, which they planned to use in a counter-attack. Several decades had past, and the gems on earth finally managed to recreate the toxin, although they had no way to ensure it would work, since there were no old gems left to test it on.

They had hope though, and as soon as they were able to repair the galaxy warp on Earth, they sent a small group of their best and oldest warriors to Homeworld, armed with their own version of the toxin. It had been 2,675 years since the start of Earth's original colony, and just over a millennium since the war had ended, so needless to say Homeworld had forgotten about their failed colony; that is, until a group of the resistance warped to Homeworld.

The Earth gems had two objectives to accomplish; infect the Homeworld gems, and destroy the planet. They knew they would never make it home again, but they didn't care, as long as this evil place no longer existed when they were through with it. Not only had the Earth gems successfully created the toxin tenfold, they had also discovered a highly concentrated acid, through failed attempts at creating the toxin, and it was able to melt through the toughest materials found on earth with ease.

They were going to use the acid to melt through the layers of obsidian this planet was made of. Once to the core of the planet, they planned on planting heavy duty explosives that would crumble this planet for good. With that in mind, the Earth gems wasted no time; as soon as they materialized they immediately released the toxin into the air, and within the next decade, the majority of gem-kind on Homeworld was corrupt. Only the Diamonds had remained unaffected, securely hidden away in their airtight fortress.

The Earth gems had a plan though, so it was time to burrow to the core of that awful world. Make no mistake, the Diamond Authority was their next target, but they weren't interested in a pointless suicide mission. The Diamonds were heavily guarded, and they didn't have nearly enough gems on their side to defeat the mass that awaited them should they try to get in. No, they were smarter than that, and had worked out a plan while awaiting the collapse of the rest of Homeworld's society.

They were going to use the acid to melt a tunnel directly underneath the heart of the Diamonds' base, then they would move directly down from there to the core of the planet, and plant the explosives, as per the plan. The resulting explosion should be enough to not only destroy the planet, but also destroy the Diamonds themselves. They had already destroyed all the escape pods, ships, and remaining galaxy warps on Homeworld. There was no way off this planet, and as soon as the bombs went off, everything on this horrid planet would meet its end; or so they thought.

Unbeknownst to the Earth gems, the Diamond Authority had prepared for an attack just like this over a millennium ago, when the possibility of such a thing was fresh in everyone's minds. Underneath their fortress were four hidden escape tunnels, branching off from each Diamonds' personal chamber, that led to a highly durable and nearly indestructible set of escape pods, preprogrammed with their latest colony's coordinates, something the Earth gems knew absolutely nothing about.

The Earth gems had presumed that they had destroyed all possible escape routes, and thus presumed that the Diamonds were still inside the fortress; which wasn't completely inaccurate either. You see, three of the tunnels had collapsed due to unknown causes, so there was only one escape pod accessible, which could only hold one Diamond. By pure luck, it happened to be the tunnel that led to Yellow Diamond's personal chambers, and she dared not notify or wait for the other Diamonds; she didn't want to risk losing the inevitable fight over the escape pod.

So, she left, as soon as word got out that the Rebel Earth gems had made it back to Homeworld. As for the remaining Diamonds, the past decade was spent trying to dig through the rubble and make a path to their own escape, which was unsuccessful. So, they sat, surrounded by their guard, waiting for the Rebels to strike; and they would not disappoint. It took them six years to make it to the core of the planet. They had brought enough explosives to blast through the planet five times over, and they did not hesitate to set their plan into motion.

Back on Earth, the explosion was eagerly awaited, with their high-power telescope constantly aimed in Homeworld's direction; and it wasn't hard to see the result of their hard work. The blast could be seen easily, even by the naked eye, and every gem celebrated vigorously at the news of their enemy's demise. It was finally over, once and for all, they no longer had to fear the eventual retaliation of Homeworld for their rebellion.

The gem population skyrocketed exponentially over the next three millennia. Civilizations were built all over the world. The human's influence still very much present in the way they did things. Their transportation, their communication devices, their incubation chambers (referred to as 'hospitals' by their extinct predecessors), their education systems, their information documentation process, even the different languages spoken throughout different regions on the planet.

Everything was at peace, and the Earth colony was growing marvelously. Their last polled population was reported in at 789,634,247 gem adults, 356,327,466 adolescent gems, and 166,479,253 geodes in incubation. That was around 5,691 years after the beginning of the Earth colony, just over four millennia since the war ended, and three millennia since they destroyed Homeworld. They hadn't trained any more fighters since the destruction of Homeworld, outside the basic gem functions;

(i.e. fusion, how to properly reform their physical form if they had to, and how to summon their weapon) they didn't see the point if there was no threat to defend against. That would unfortunately be their biggest mistake, and the reason behind their (almost) complete destruction. You see, Yellow Diamond had not forgotten about Earth, or the attack on her Homeworld. She sought vengeance, and being both the commander of Homeworld's army, and the oldest Diamond, held its weight on other colonies under the Diamond Authority.

It took her 600 years to safely reach the colony they had created shortly after Earth was lost. And it took less than a day to gain control over the planet, and persuade the inhabiting gems to fight for her against Earth. She spent the next 416 years creating the largest army possible, maximizing gem production on the planet and completely draining it of all its resources, leaving it barren; not like that mattered anyway, for her plan was to overtake Earth and create a new Homeworld on it.

Armed with over 560 million gems, she spent the next millennium training her army, teaching them the most advanced battle strategies known to gem-kind. Once she was sure her army was as prepared as it could be, convinced she had nothing but the best, most elite group of warriors Homeworld ever had the privilege of training, she set course for Earth. It took nearly a millennium to reach the planet; and their arrival was not a secret either. Sure, Earth had had no idea of their existence for most their training and travel, but earth still had view of space from their origin lab, which was still monitored by gems, a lingering paranoia to keep an eye out for any possible threat.

So, when Yellow Diamond's ship got within viewing distance, mass panic ensued. A draft was pulled, and all gems were required to begin immediate battle training. There wasn't nearly enough time to train properly, it was a mere year before the ship was expected to land, but if they had any hope of surviving the battle they had to try to prepare as much as possible beforehand. All the children and geodes were rounded up, and placed in a cryogenic sleep state, suspended in time, awaiting the end of this new war.

Along with a small group of gems from each region, and all their history and current logs of useful information, they were locked inside a series of interconnected old war bunkers left behind from the human era. Once sealed there was no way to open the door until the set timer ran out; a timer that was set for 860 years. They could not breed; it was too dangerous and they had no way to feed the resulting children, hence why the other children were placed in hibernation.

So, they spent their time in isolation the best way they could. They kept themselves well-versed on all the information in storage, making sure nothing important was forgotten. The majority became multilingual, and continued to educate themselves until there was no possible way anything would be forgotten. That's when the eldest members began training. You see, each small group of adults that had been taken from each region on earth had a gem from the rebellion, a master in the ancient war techniques from Homeworld.

They had taken it upon themselves to spend the next 800 odd years training everyone inside the bunker, making sure they were prepared for whatever they found on the other side of the doors once they opened. Nothing could have prepared them for what awaited them though. While the contingency plan was acted out, the remaining 750 million or so gems left aboveground on Earth had gathered at the estimated landing site for the Homeworld ship.

Well, all except a small group of scientists, locked away in a secure location, desperately trying to replicate the toxin that had helped them take out homeworld last time. They couldn't work fast enough though; before they knew it, the ship had landed and the battle had begun. Despite Earth's superior numbers, the Homeworld gems had far superior training and used that to their advantage. The fight was brutal, ruthless, and decimating.

Both sides took tremendous blows, but it was clear which side was losing after a few centuries. Earth had lost the majority of their army, and Homeworld had lost only a half of theirs. It seemed that any hope of victory was lost, a fact which Yellow Diamond took immense pleasure in from the safety of her ship. That is, until the Scientists, hidden in their isolated lab on the other side of the planet, managed to finally replicate the damn toxin once more, except this time, it wasn't merely airborne.

It could penetrate solid surfaces, worm its way through the microscopic holes between atoms, leaving any building vulnerable to attack. It was also now fatal, slowly degrading the gems core until they crumbled into non-existence. It was a potent substance, and took far longer to create than any of them expected. Nevertheless, they finally had their solution, their weapon to turn the tide in Earth's favor. They launched a remote missile at the projected landing site, and it burrowed into the ground, quickly releasing its contents into the air as Homeworld gems looked on in shock, and Earth gems quickly began cheering.

That is, until they realized what was now happening. While the toxin still did not affect Earth gems, the newly corrupted gems were far more vicious than expected from previous accounts. The toxin didn't immediately kill them either, so while they were no longer a threat to all Earth-kind, there was little hope that the remaining gems outside of the bunker would make it out alive. The corrupted beasts took out the remainder of Earth's army, and began wreaking havoc on the surrounding areas, destroying everything in their path.

Yellow Diamond was enraged with the outcome of the war, and she hastily left the planet once she realized that Earth was now no longer a viable option. She set out, looking for a new planet to colonize, unaware of the toxin's ability to enter her ship. She didn't know what would become of her, realizing too late as her form started contorting and her consciousness fading. The newly-formed beast rampaged through the ship, ripping through the hull and floating off into the vastness of space.

Back on Earth, it took nearly 150 years for all the corrupted beasts to wither away into nothing, and they had caused a significant amount of damage in that time period. When the doors to the bunkers finally opened, and the last known remaining gems in the universe emerged, the were not expecting to see the amount of damage they did. The shattered remains of their fallen family lay scattered amongst the battleground, now an overgrown field of extremely large fruit, mixed in with the shards of enemy gems, all of them sparkling in the sunlight, tragically beautiful.

Great sorrow filled their very cores, only intensified after seeing the damage done to their beloved cities. This was not the only thing that had been discovered, however. While the toxin did not have the same effect on Earth gems as it did Homeworld gems, it did seem to do something to them. They soon discovered, after cleaning up the remains of the wreckage, and unfreezing their young, that once they tried to begin repopulating the Earth, and subsequently rebuild their colony, that they could no longer voluntarily switch between genders, and even worse, that this seemed to now be genetic as well, and their young were now born with a specific gender.

The cause of this genetic malfunction is unknown, but it poses a very new and real problem; the majority of gems that had been in the bunker, children notwithstanding, were male, and now they required to pair with a female gem in order to produce more children. They had to wait for the new children and geodes to grow up, and become mature and fertile. So a group of gems came up with a solution. They quickly formed a new government, something that was purposefully avoided until now because of how toxic Homeworld's government had been, but something that was deemed necessary under the new circumstances.

They were quick to establish rules regarding breeding and law enforcement to back up these new laws. The first thing they did was ban same-sex pairings. This was out of the pure necessity of more gems, and not intended to be permanent. However, banning them did not stop them from happening. So, they decided that they had to take it a step farther. There was too much choice in who could be partnered with who. So, after a century of waiting and the gem population not rising nearly as fast as they had hoped, They brought back the human idea of an 'arranged marriage'.

Gems were forced to pair with the gem of the opposite gender that would be most likely to yield the highest amount of geodes per cycle. This whole process quickly became a problem, because gems of course are not immune to matters of the heart, and despite what they were told, could not choose who they fell in love with. They started forming relationships with other gems, outside of their assigned pairing. The law enforcement had no choice but to imprison their own people, where they were forced to breed against their will, in captivity, like endangered zoo animals, except worse.

The public had no idea what their fellow gems were being subjected to, because the government refused to allow visitation to the incarcerated. Tensions were already tremendously high, many outraged at their lack of free will, feeling as if this was just turning into the beginnings of a new Homeworld. And while the government had been formed with the best of intentions at heart, they quickly became corrupt, (as power tends to do to those in charge), and they became extremely over-controlling, micromanaging all of Earth's sub-colonies across the globe, carefully monitoring them, making sure they were following the absurd and archaic laws put into place.

After about 750 years of this, the population was finally at the level which it was before the second war had happened, but that wasn't enough to disband the government or have them cast aside the laws that had been put into place. The population of gems on Earth were split; some supported the government and its laws, frowning upon any pairing that was against their designated ones, despite the lack of requirement for such a thing anymore; others, now the growing majority, were angry at their lack of control in their own life, and believed that they should be free to choose their own destiny.

They tried to negotiate through peaceful means, arrange for the release of their family from prison, arrange for the abolishing of the laws and even of the government itself, but the gems in charge refused to give up their control, and it got to the point where they started imprisoning protesters, and exposing them to the horrible life that was well hidden behind the stone walls of their new personal hell. Eventually, soon after the protesters started being incarcerated, the ugly truth was revealed to the public, a group of prisoners staged a small rebellion and broke free, attesting to the masses the horrible truth about the prison, and about their leadership.

Most of the gems now supported a new rebellion, a civil war, to take back their independence from the hands of their oppressor, whether they had previously agreed with the laws or not; and thus, the great civil war of Earth started, something that lasted a near millennium, 950 years to be exact, and the outcome of which was less than pleasant. Though they were successful in overthrowing the government, eliminating the gems who opposed the unrestricted way of life they were fighting for, and freeing the thousands of prisoners held across the world, they had also lost a fair number of gems once more.

They hadn't lost enough to cause panic again, but they did lose enough to where same sex pairings were still not tolerated by most. While laws did not exist banning what they called 'homosexual pairings', (later the activist groups for these relationships came together across the world and coined the terms, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, also known as LGBT), (there weren't many laws at all anymore, besides basic ones that were for the betterment of gem society, i.e. the right to be with whomever they pleased, the outlawing of discrimination and murder, both of which were severely punished, and other very sensible laws that were sworn upon by the justice force to uphold and enforce.)

there was still a lot of prejudice towards anyone who was openly involved in such a relationship. It's now been 216 years since the end of the civil war, and things, while better, are not much different. The education system was restored, and life seemed to return to how it was before Homeworld attacked again, but things were far from perfect. Many people were afraid to be gay, for while they probably wouldn't be murdered for it anymore, (hence why murder was made illegal after the civil war) they would still be ostracized and bullied for it, and so they tried to avoid making themselves known if at all possible.

Except for in the last 10 or so years; there was a recent movement made by the advocacy group, GRC (the gem rights campaign) that was encouraging both the 'coming out' of LGBT gems, and the support of those LGBT gems within their community. It was slowly gaining momentum, more so in big cities than urban areas, small towns, and rural communities, but nevertheless things were slowly changing for everyone, and there was hope that one day, things would finally be back to normal, and they could put this whole tragedy, and the subsequent events that occurred afterword, behind all of gem-kind; its only relevance in the future being a history lesson in educational programs, to teach future generations not to repeat the mistakes of past gems.

 **A/N:** **okay, so there you have it! That was way longer than I thought it would be lmao, I hope you guys like it, I tried to explain a few things in this, mostly why gems are homophobic in my fanfiction, and how gems could reproduce in the first place. The story ended in the year 2016 A.H. (after homeworld), which means it's been 2,016 years since the second war with Homeworld (if that wasn't obvious lol). I hope this prologue makes at least a little sense lol, and obviously, it is far from cannon events, I hope no one minds. As always, please let me know what you guys thought, I really appreciate it, even the negative reviews, because I take what I can from them to help better my story in the future. I'd like to thank you guys for reading this prologue, even though it had absolutely nothing to do with the actual fanfiction, and also nothing to do with Rupphire. I am posting this along with the next chapter, which will be a short preface to tide you guys over while I finish typing out the actual handwritten first chapter I have in my notebook, and then editing that so it's readable. I should be finished with that by next week at the latest, at least if everything goes smoothly and according to plan. As I mentioned above in the first author's note, the next chapter has an interesting author's note, for any of my other readers from my other fanfiction, and it explains why I haven't written anything in over a year, as well as my plan for my other story, which is for an entirely different fandom; just in case any of them look at this, I wanted to let them know what was going on. You're more than welcome to read it as well (the author's note, also the fanfiction but I doubt you'd want to if you don't follow the fandom it's for lol), for it has some interesting things about my life and current situation, but it has very little to do with this story. I started writing this story back in September, and it's taken me a while to get this all started, again that has to do with my current life situation and the resulting toll it takes on my mental state. But anyways, that's all for now, I hope you enjoyed this! Until next time,**

 **~Liz~**


	2. Preface

Okay, so since I couldn't upload this story with the full summary in the main description, here it is; hopefully this one is a little less cringe-inducing.

 **Summary**

High School AU. Ruby is a musician struggling with her depression after the loss of her parents, and due to certain circumstances, she has to practice her music after school in the band room, in secret. Sapphire just moved to Beach City, and is starting her senior year at Ruby's school. She keeps to herself because she has social anxiety along with some secrets she feels like she has to hide. She loves to sing and uses it to cope with her anxiety, so she decides to ask the music teacher about chorus class after school. She walks into the band room and finds Ruby alone, playing one of her newest compositions. Things happen and Ruby realizes Sapphire is there. A confrontation occurs, and the series of events that happen next is something neither ever expected. I'm bad at writing summaries and my writing probably sucks, but this is something I've been working on for months and I decided to finally post it after much debate. I hope you guys like it though!

 **A/N:** **Hey guys! It's Liz, and if this isn't your first time reading my work, well let me just say, I'm back finally, lol. If you haven't read 'Well, This is Awkward', my other story, then skip the first half of this authors note, go to the ~ below (unless you're curious about my life, then go for it fam) so, I know it's been over a year since you've seen anything new from me, and sorry to disappoint but this obviously isn't an update for WTIA. Don't fret, I haven't given up on our lovely doccubus, but I've been having a lot of hard shit happen to me over the past year and a half. My grandmother died, I sank into a dark spiral of drug use and depression, I was hospitalized for over a month to get help, and I turned my life around, got a job, graduated high school, and was attending college. But back in June I got into a severe car accident, which almost claimed my life. I was seriously injured, and I'm still recovering; I won't be able to walk again until around January of next year. So yeah a lot of heavy shit has happened, but I'm finally in a good spot mentally again. Needless to say, with all that going on I haven't found time or inspiration to write the second half of chapter five for WTIA. I'm gonna try to work on it though, soon, I promise. It's just that ~ this story idea has been stuck in my head since I started watching Steven Universe, and subsequently got obsessed with the two small, adorable, gay space rocks, Ruby and Sapphire. This story is an AU, more specifically a cross between a high school AU and a non-cannon gem AU. They are gems still, but I decided to make them more human-like, just to mix things up. There are no actual humans in this story (although there is mention of humans existing at one point), for this reason alone. This is a slow burn romance, so they don't get together until like chapter 10. But don't worry, they realize they have feelings for each other a lot sooner than that lol. But be warned, this story is not going to be all fluffy and cute (though there will be a lot of that). I plan on having a lot of emotional things happen, and it gets pretty heart wrenching at times, in my opinion anyway. Anyways, enough of me wasting your time, here's the first chapter, which isn't actually the first chapter but instead an introductory chapter, lmao don't hate me pls. Hope you enjoy, and as always, let me know what you guys think! :)**

 **~Liz~**

 **Preface**

Ruby Hadyn is a musical prodigy who feels utterly alone in life after her parents were shattered in a tragic car accident, right before the start of her junior year. She hasn't had the easiest life, always being made fun of for various reasons beyond her control, and was outright shunned once she came out. No matter how hard things got, however, her parents were always there, to help her, support her, and love her. For the past year, she's had to adapt to life without her parents, adapt to her new self.

She's always been ill-tempered and brash, but since her parents' demise, she's had to deal with a fragile psyche, unstable emotional outbursts, crippling depression, and the cruelty of her fellow classmates. Fights inevitably ensued, eventually she got carried away, and ended up cracking another student's gem. She was put on probation with the school; one more fight and she would be kicked out. She's long since closed herself off, built walls to hide behind, but more for the safety of others than her actual well-being.

She focused on her studies, her training, and her music only, never interacting with the other gems. She was dangerous now, but deep down, the old Ruby was still there. She was still passionate, kind, caring. But it was overshadowed by her seemingly never ending rage. Her only escape in in life was her music. She lost herself completely in it. She could release her emotions without risking someone getting hurt, or something getting destroyed; but one day, after an unexpectedly difficult first day of her senior year, Ruby lost it and trashed her room in a furious haze, realizing, too late, what she'd done.

Her guitar and piano were unsalvageable, and with this discovery came another one, far worse than the first. Without her musical outlet, it was only a matter of time before she snapped, and got herself kicked out of school for fighting. Her only option was to practice her music in the school's band room, after school. She knew they had both a piano and several guitars, but that wasn't the problem. She's purposefully kept her musical gift a secret, to protect the one good thing she has left; and now she had to risk it all.

Regardless, she starts carrying her songbooks with her, staying after school on her free days to work on her music. Everything was working out surprisingly well, that is, until someone walks in on her one day. She fears the worst, which isn't pessimistic of her, considering almost everyone at the school hated her, and she had no friends, not anymore anyway. She thought she knew what would happen next. Unbeknownst to Ruby, however, there's a new girl at school, and her story is nearly as tragic her own, and it's also the exact reason why things are most certainly not going to go the way she's expecting them to.

Sapphire Isanne was a new transfer to Beach City High, coming from Empire City Academy, a private school in the next city over. She wasn't there by choice, however. Ever since she was a little girl, Sapphire knew she was different from the other gems, and not in a 'everyone is unique and special' kind of way. She was what you would call a 'defective' gem. For starters, she could only create one eye for her physical form, no matter how hard she tried.

Secondly, she wasn't shaped like regular sapphires. She was small and slender, elegant looking with her blue ball gown, complete with elbow length white gloves, and her long, flowing hair, bangs covering her eye. If she was any other gem, surely her appearance would be coveted, eye excluded, but no, when you're made from corundum, you're expected to look, well, fierce. Corundum variants, sapphires especially, were created to guard the best of the best.

Armed with superb reflexes, deadly aim, immense strength; all backed by a towering physique, sapphires were the perfect bodyguard, or they were supposed to be anyway. She had none of this, aside from the reflexes. She had no depth perception, she was very small, and instead of strength she possessed speed. She in no way resembled any other sapphire. Sapphires had been made to protect the Diamonds and their court, since they balanced on that edge of elegant and fierce. Of course, they were no longer needed for that, since the Diamond Authority had long since been destroyed; along with Homeworld.

Obviously though, that didn't stop people from judging her flaws. For most of her life, Sapphire had been told she was less than, worthless, a mistake; and not by the students at school. Sure, they had their fun picking on her, calling her a cyclops, puny, a runt, defective, pathetic, ex cetera; sure, they'd probably agree with the previous statements above, but they never said it to her at least. No, that cruelty was dealt out by the two people Sapphire loved the most; her parents.

Her parents hated her, despite her constant effort to be nothing but exceptional in every aspect of her life. She wished she could hate them back; hell, it'd make things a little easier for her at least, but something in Sapphire wouldn't let her. No, for all their flaws, there had been a time when her parents adored her. She longed for the return of those times, it's all she wanted. To be loved, accepted, by the two people who brought her into the world.

So she tried to bring it back. She tried to make herself as beautiful as possible, dressing herself in floor length ball gowns, making her hair wavy and making it so it went well past the middle of her back, she even covered her eye with bangs. Her parents didn't care, so she tried to show them how intelligent she was. She took all advanced classes, she learned three different languages, she had straight As. Still, her parents took no notice, choosing to point out all the things she wasn't doing; wasn't being.

Eventually, they got tired of living with someone they claimed was the bane of their existence, so they bought an apartment in the next town over, sending Sapphire to live there, with only her possessions and a promise of a monthly check, to purchase necessities with. Now she was starting her senior year completely alone, surrounded by completely new faces, unfamiliar and strange. The first week wasn't even over yet and she had already had three panic attacks, one of which she had to miss class for.

She had already been made fun of by the schools apparent popular group, for her visible flaws. At least no one knew about her eye; or her powers. Keeping those hidden was both essential and tremendously stressful. Hence her anxiety attacks. She was constantly worried someone would find out her secrets, and then her chances of being accepted would diminish to nothing. But her chances of actually being able to talk to someone were already slim to none.

Every time she even thought about introducing herself to someone her social anxiety would rear its ugly head and she'd spiral into a pit of self-doubt and irrational fears about unlikely scenarios. So she kept to herself, which oddly enough did nothing to ease her fears about revealing herself; seriously, how exactly would she be able to do that if she refused to talk to a single soul? Nevertheless, her fears remained ever present and so she continued to suffer in silence.

She had finally mustered up the courage to ask the music teacher about joining the chorus class though, desperately needing to sing her anxiety away, her one and only coping mechanism that worked, and made a plan to speak to them after school one day. Things could never go smoothly for sapphire, however, so of course it was just her luck to wander into the music room after school and accidentally encroach on a student who was performing a seemingly sorrowful and private song; and of course she couldn't just turn around and leave, no, she had to let herself get enraptured by the music, and slowly creep forward until she stepped on the creaky floorboard, which of course alerted the other student to her presence.

The next sequence of events will never be forgotten by either student, for it leads to the most wonderful story of young love, a beautiful tale of overcoming your issues and flaws to be with the one person you know you were made for. It leads to the song that saved them both.

 **A/N:** **And so that is the introduction to my lovely little story. I know I wrote more about Sapphire than I did about Ruby, and there's a reason for that. Let me know what you think about it, even if you think it sucks lmao. The next chapter is the actual first chapter, and it's told from Ruby's POV. I'm putting the finishing touches on that one still, so I'll probably update this relatively soon, barring no complications lol. So for now here is the intro, and I also posted an interesting prologue as well, it's my version of the gem war, and contributes some trivial background information for this story, as well as explains a few interesting things that occur in my AU world. As always, I hope you enjoyed this, and reviews are always welcomed and appreciated. This is my first story for the Steven Universe fandom, so go easy on me! Until next time,**

 **~Liz~**


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